Nepal

ARMED FORCES AND SOCIETY, NEPAL

Origins of the Legendary Gurkha

The term Gurkha (or, in Nepali, Gorkha)
usually
referred to soldiers of Nepalese origin who, over many
generations,
served in the legendary British Brigade of Gurkhas. Other
regiments
designated as Gurkha still served in the Indian Army as of
1991. As
it has for more than 175 years, Nepal in the early 1990s
served as
a source of recruits for Indian and British Gurkha
regiments.
Retired British Gurkhas also served in specially raised
security
units in Singapore and Brunei.

Soldiers who served in the Royal Nepal Army usually
were not
called Gurkhas, although they also claimed to be the
rightful heirs
of many of the same martial traditions as their countrymen
recruited to serve in foreign armies. The designation had
no
distinct ethnic connotation but derived from the name of
the old
kingdom of Gorkha (Gurkha), the territory that roughly
encompassed
the present-day district of Gorkha, in the mountains some
fifty-six
kilometers west of Kathmandu. Soldiers from the kingdom of
Gorkha
established an international reputation for their martial
qualities
during the eighteenth century by their successful
invasions of
Tibet. As the Gorkha kingdom expanded eastward across the
Himalayas
to Sikkim, the king's warriors, taken from all groups in
the area,
came to be known as Gurkha soldiers. Legend had it that
Gurkhas
never drew their service-issued kukri (curved
Nepalese
knives) without drawing blood, even if it were their own.
Although
probably a tradition of a bygone era, the legend added
immeasurably
to the Gurkhas' reputation for toughness.

The exploits and legends surrounding the Gurkhas are
among the
more memorable of modern military history. The old Gorkha
kingdom
was established in the mid-sixteenth century by Dravya
Shah, the
founder of the dynasty of Shah Thakuri kings that have
reigned in
Nepal ever since
(see The Expansion of Gorkha
, ch. 1). Two
centuries later, the Gorkha kingdom began a major
expansion under
the energetic, young King Prithvi Narayan Shah (reigned
1743-75),
who conquered the Kathmandu Valley and unified numerous
petty
kingdoms while consolidating his control over an area
substantially
the same as that of modern Nepal. The first two regular
Gurkha
regiments, designated Sri Nath and Purano Gorakh, were
raised in
1763. As Gorkha rule expanded, control over the conquered
territories was left mainly to district governors (bada
hakim), who were responsible for establishing military
strong
points and for maintaining a local militia.

The military prowess of the Nepalese soldier first
became known
in the eighteenth century, when forces from what was then
known as
Gorkha invaded Tibet. Within Nepal itself, certain ethnic
groups,
such as the Magar, Gurung, Limbu, Rai, Chhetri, and
Thakuri, had
much earlier won reputations as "warrior tribes." The
Magar,
Gurung, and Limbu furnished the bulk of the kingdom's
soldiers up
to the rank of captain. Higher ranks tended to be filled
from the
Thakuri, Chhetri, and Rai groups. These officers came
almost
exclusively from families of the ruling elite
(see Caste and Ethnicity
, ch. 2).

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, armies were
raised
when needed and disbanded when the need expired. This
practice
created a sizable reserve of trained veterans but resulted
in a
recurring unemployment problem. In general, only members
of the
higher castes were retained in military service between
wars. The
first steps toward the creation of a sizable permanent
military
establishment were taken by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa,
who
governed from 1804-37 and who raised the army's strength
from
10,000 to 15,000 persons. He also built arsenals, ordnance
workshops, and cantonments. The large parade ground
constructed at
Tundhikhel in Kathmandu during that period still was in
use as of
1991.

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